There have been some interesting recent developments in the CIA's Italian kidnapping caper...

The case came to light last June, when an Italian judge issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents for nabbing Egyptian Muslim cleric Hassan Nasr (aka 'Abu Omar') off a street in Milan on February 17, 2003, and shipping him, via an American airbase in Germany, to Egypt, where he was allegedly tortured. Egypt wanted Nasr, 42, because of his involvement in Jemaah Islamiah, an organization dedicated to establishing an Islamic government in Egypt. During a crackdown on Jemaah Islamiah in the early 1990s, Nasr fled Egypt and eventually received asylum in Italy in 1997.

After the initial arrest warrants were issued in June, Italian prosecutors brought charges against nine more CIA operatives allegedly involved in the case, and last month, on November 11, the prosecutors asked the Italian Justice Ministry to approve the extradition of the 22 agents from the United States. One amusing tidbit: this particular 'black op' did not appear to be particularly arduous for the operativesthey ran up bills at five-star hotels in Milan and Venice totaling, according to the prosecutor's report, $144,984.

Two days ago, in a front page Washington Post story, Craig Whitlock revealed new details of an apparent rivalry between the U.S. and Italian intelligence services in their investigations of Nasr. According to Whitlock, Italian intelligence officials had also been on Nasr's trail, suspecting him of being involved in a terrorist recruiting network. A few weeks after Nasr's abduction, the CIA, in an apparent attempt to throw Italian investigators off Nasr's track, informed them that Nasr had fled to the Balkans. The Italians didn't learn the truth of what had become of Nasr for over a year. Armando Spataro, the lead prosecutor in Milan, claims that the CIA's interference not only violated Italian sovereignty, but also disrupted and damaged a major Italian investigation that might have been able to identify others in Nasr's network.

As for the Italian attempt to get revenge on the CIA, so far Italian Justice Minister Roberto Castelli has refused to approve the extradition request. Normally, such approval is a routine formality, but Castelli has balked for almost a month, and he recently accused prosecutor Spataro of being a leftist "militant." Interestingly, just before the formal request for extradition was made, Castelli traveled to Washington and met with U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Castelli later admitted that he had discussed extradition cases with Gonzales, but refused to specify whether the CIA kidnapping case was among them.

Meanwhile, leaks to the press from other CIA officers with knowledge of the Nasr abduction have indicated that SISMI, the Italian military intelligence agency suspected of being involved in the Iraq-Niger hoax, was briefed on the Nasr operation beforehand, and that it cleared the operation with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Which sucks for Berlusconi, since he's been fervently denying any Italian involvement for months, not wanting his government capsized by the recent wave of anti-American feeling in Europe over American human rights abuses.

Q Italian prosecutors are seeking the extradition from the United States of 22 CIA agents in connection with the kidnapping of a Muslim cleric in Milan, who was then flown to Egypt where he was allegedly tortured. Have the President or Secretary Rice or Attorney General Gonzales discussed the kidnapping charges with the Italian government? And will the United States honor the extradition request?

MR. McCLELLAN: I imagine there have been discussions through the appropriate channels, and you might want to check with the Justice Department or the State Department on what discussions have occurred.

Q So will the ---

MR. McCLELLAN: I think we've made our views very clear, and I'm not going to talk any further about them.

In claiming that "we've made our views very clear," Scott may have been referring to National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley's response of "I really can't," when he was asked to comment on the case way back in June. We at BTC News, seeing the opportunity to fill a dearth of clarity with speculation, offer up the following scenario: President Bush asked Berlusconi to quash the impending extradition request during their meeting on October 31. And then Gonzales and Castelli finalized the deal the following week.

The Muslim cleric can't have been kidnapped and sent away to be tortured, because we don't torture. Bush said that. And John McCain, who knows about this stuff, says torture doesn't work because people lie to avoid being tortured. And Condi said we don't condone torture, even though she also said our interrogation techniques have been producing results, which is kinda' weird because it contradicts McCain, unless the interrogation Condi was talking about isn't torture even though she won't tell us what it is.

This cleric must have been kidnapped by the C.I.A. for a different reason. Maybe he's going to become the new Shah in Iran. We haven't had a Shah for a while over there. Maybe it's time.

Evidently the admin considers the reported 5% recent gain in presidential approval a mandate. Kidnapping in foreign nations is not below them.

Karl Rove must be so confident that the has called out the dogs. An attack is going to be made on democrats (link here) saying they are waving the white flag in Iraq. The George Bush Democrats, like Lieberman, are supporting the admin.

This new push is full of Schmidt, who called war hero Murtha a coward. It will not work.

Meanwhile its beginning to look a lot like Fitzmas (link here) because Fitzgerald is spending hour upon hour with the new grand jury and bringing them up to speed on the CIA Leak investigation.

Victory is the new lie word, and "victory" to the admin simply means staying until a new president is elected, no matter what is happening to the troups.

There are 1,000 Iraqis for each American soldier. Yes, Iraq has a population of some 138,000,000 people, or about a thousand for each soldier. Murtha reports that 80%, or 110,400,000 (one hundred and ten million) want us out.

And 62,100,000 (sixty two million) Iraqis say it is ok to kill American soldiers in Iraq who are part of the occupation.

So saying American congressmen are cowards because they are in sync with the American public is surely going to cause the neoCons to get a good ass kicking in next years election.

It will hurt the moderate republicans too, because most of the neoCons (90%) claim to be republicans.

The 5% pick up in Bush's approval rating leaves him at 40%. The background polls prove that the entire gain was related to Bush's "handling" of the economy (as if any president could actually handle an economy this size, let alone a man like Bush).

The third-quarter G.D.P. gains came largely from hurricane repair work. I suppose the 5% who like Bush better because the economy picked up after two major hurricanes are the same ones who think Brownie was doing a heck of a job.

As Lincoln might have said, "You can fool 5% of the people all the time, or all the people 5% of the time."

Your shotgun blast into the crowd left me wondering if you are talking to the wall again.

We won't need luck in the next election. It is a given.

There is no side when there is no "victory" but instead more lies.

Only 25% of Americans think your fuehrer has a real plan for "victory" other than more cardboard fronts behind him as he skips, propagandizes, and hides on military bases where people are commanded what to believe.

The 75% who see a pig in a poke in the Iraq junket are who "liberals" are.

Scooter Libby has an arab twin. An ideological twin that helped get Iraq invaded. His name is Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi.

Thru the imaculate language developed by now Judge Bybee and General Gonzales (torture isn't "torture"), Libi was tortured by the Egyptians in a rendition before the invasion of Iraq, and said Al Qaeda was based in Iraq (link here).

He was lying to stop being tortured. No wonder The Dick VP likes torture ... they say what he wants them to say. Keep the torture up and we will have "proof" of The Dick VP's rantings and ravings.

Why the hell doesn't The Dick VP torture some of the insurgents until the say we won so we can end the circus? the death? the destruction? the lies? and the ruination of the reputation of America?

Why? Cause they do not want to leave until the permanent military bases are complete and therefore the oil, which has been divied up to various oil barons, can be distrubuted "freely" (and thus "freedom" can equate to "victory").

If you want peace why not go over and be a peace activist in Iraq like the ones who are about to get their heads sawed off while concious. I wonder how they are feeling about their peace or if they wish an American soldier would come in and kill their captives.